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Balancing on the last stalk of wheat
I spent yesterday evening sitting in a diner in Yonkers, bitching about interpersonal politics in the pagan temple with which I'm currently involved, and designing ritual for the fall equinox, which we're going to host in our home. I haven't done this sort of thing in a while – the ritual design, not the bitching, I mean – and I've missed it. I enjoy pulling together something that feels aesthetically pleasing to me, that fits with the season and the time, and that brings people into a group experience. It appeals to my desire to bring a bit of a feeling of connectedness to people's lives, to mark stopping places in the everytimeness of the world. I enjoy making things fit, and flow, and feel right. Ritual design is an artform that satisfies me.
So we're strengthening community by cooking together, putting foods into a pot to represent what we offer, taking them back out to represent what we take back. We're playing with light and dark, clockwise and counterclockwise, to evoke the balance of the equinox. We're working with Demeter and Dionysus, Greek harvest gods, bread and wine, and telling harvest stories. We're sitting with the people we love, and eating together. Simple magic. Nothing subtle or obscure. I like it that way.
I'm an unabashed revisionist, though I try to be an intelligent and careful one; I want to be aware of the implications of the symbols I use, not to have them grate against one another too harshly. I'm not in awe of old forms, especially old forms for which there is no way for us to get any sense of true context , but at the same time, I'm not drawn to new symbols just because they're new. I'm not afraid to redefine the meaning of a symbol, but I try to do it on purpose. (Real Wiccan Lineage (TM) aside, I do believe we're making it up as we go along, as people always have. I just like to work with old scraps, when I can, rather than whole cloth.)
One of the reasons I spend time in both the Unitarian and Neopagan communties is that they've got radically different aesthetics, both of which appeal to me. Unitarians, on the whole, are intellectual, thoughtful, sensible, liberal, practical people. They're sparse in style, overall, and have no ritual aesthetic sense. It's a kind and gentle community, generally, where people can disagree strongly about philosophy and then sit down at the table together. They're about thinking, about the mind. Neopagans, in general, are dramatic, evocative, irrational, careless, impractical people, willing to dive into things which don't make very much sense. They love myth and symbol. They like things sensorially rich, music and dancing and food and incense and colors, toys for the lizard mind and the body. It's a flamboyant and catty community, disorganized, and often anti-intellectual to the point that sometimes it just doesn't feel like people think all that much. But they're alive, and they remember how to play! They're aboutfeeling, about the soul.
Together, they balance me.
So we're strengthening community by cooking together, putting foods into a pot to represent what we offer, taking them back out to represent what we take back. We're playing with light and dark, clockwise and counterclockwise, to evoke the balance of the equinox. We're working with Demeter and Dionysus, Greek harvest gods, bread and wine, and telling harvest stories. We're sitting with the people we love, and eating together. Simple magic. Nothing subtle or obscure. I like it that way.
I'm an unabashed revisionist, though I try to be an intelligent and careful one; I want to be aware of the implications of the symbols I use, not to have them grate against one another too harshly. I'm not in awe of old forms, especially old forms for which there is no way for us to get any sense of true context , but at the same time, I'm not drawn to new symbols just because they're new. I'm not afraid to redefine the meaning of a symbol, but I try to do it on purpose. (Real Wiccan Lineage (TM) aside, I do believe we're making it up as we go along, as people always have. I just like to work with old scraps, when I can, rather than whole cloth.)
One of the reasons I spend time in both the Unitarian and Neopagan communties is that they've got radically different aesthetics, both of which appeal to me. Unitarians, on the whole, are intellectual, thoughtful, sensible, liberal, practical people. They're sparse in style, overall, and have no ritual aesthetic sense. It's a kind and gentle community, generally, where people can disagree strongly about philosophy and then sit down at the table together. They're about thinking, about the mind. Neopagans, in general, are dramatic, evocative, irrational, careless, impractical people, willing to dive into things which don't make very much sense. They love myth and symbol. They like things sensorially rich, music and dancing and food and incense and colors, toys for the lizard mind and the body. It's a flamboyant and catty community, disorganized, and often anti-intellectual to the point that sometimes it just doesn't feel like people think all that much. But they're alive, and they remember how to play! They're aboutfeeling, about the soul.
Together, they balance me.
no subject
Hmm, looks like you've been speaking to the exoterics again. I actually do have a Wiccan lineage but it goes back no further than the thirty-odd years that the Tradition has been around. I guess we're one of the few sects of isoteric Wicca that actually acknowledges the points you put up: that a healthy religion should evolve and change but with careful thought put into the sources and the reasons for change.
I'd sure love to be part of a community such as you describe. All that's left down here is the cattiness, rudeness, and oneupmanship. It's all about power in both circles and the wonder is completely gone.
so *that's* it!
now i know why.
chris/sirhc
http://members.fcc.net/castellan/chatelaine.html